Conjugated polymer-coated novel bioadsorbents for wastewater treatment

Abstract A huge quantity of water is used in manufacturing sectors, including textile, paper, and leather mills. After use, the polluted wastewater is discharged into the environment without proper treatment. The wastewater contains toxic heavy metals and other pollutants beyond the permissible limit and is therefore very harmful to vegetation as well as all living things on Earth. It is therefore a serious threat to human civilization as well as flora and fauna. Although there are existing methods of wastewater treatment such as precipitation, cementation, reverse osmosis, coagulation, and ion-exchange, they have their limitations. Adsorption is the new concept in the field of wastewater treatment where some adsorbents can adsorb harmful metal ions and reduce the COD, BOD, turbidity, and color of the wastewater. Conjugated polymers such as polypyrrole, polyaniline, polythiophene, etc., are a class of materials that have high ion exchange and adsorption capability. As novel bioadsorbents, these conjugated polymer-coated textile and other substrates are reported as very useful for the removal of various heavy metals such as Cr, As, Mg, Fe, Cu, Cd, Pb, Zn, Ni, etc., from wastewater. The bioadsorbents are also capable of reducing the COD, BOD, turbidity, and color of wastewater. This chapter deals with the preparation, characterization, and performance of such novel bioadsorbents for wastewater treatment. This adsorption method can be an alternative to existing wastewater treatment methods that will be adopted by industries in the future.